Pirate Bay: On Trial

The founders of the world's largest search engine for free media, Pirate Bay, have finally been dragged into court.

A quick reminder about what is at stake here: Pirate Bay is a BitTorrent tracker: Its servers don't actually hold any free media. Pirate Bay merely acts as a search engine by which users can locate free media.

A case can obviously be made that Pirate Bay is aiding and abetting theft in cases in which the media its users locate is copyrighted, but Pirate Bay also indexes legally downloadable media. So Google could presumably be open to the same charge.

The Guardian: The most high-profile anti-piracy case in recent years begins on Monday when four men behind the world's largest filesharing website will stand trial in Sweden.

The team behind The Pirate Bay, which has more than 22 million active users worldwide, are due to appear in Stockholm district court, accused of assisting copyright infringement...

Media and music companies, led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), have argued that Pirate Bay promotes copyright infringement, and has made millions of pounds in profits since launching in 2003. They are claiming more than $100m in damages.

Pirate Bay has said its activities are legal under Swedish law because it does not host the material, acting only as a search engine. It has also denied making large profits, saying any money raised through advertising and donations goes into the maintenance of the site.

The defendants include three of the website's co-founders Fredik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, but prosecutors also charged one of the site's donors, Swedish dotcom millionaire Carl Lundström.

Lundström, a supporter of several far-right political parties in Sweden, has donated money to the organisation in the past, although it is not clear how closely he was involved in running the site. If found guilty, the men could face up to two years in prison and a fine of £100,000 - as well as any damages the court may award.